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Fairtrade International has raised its minimum prices for certified arabica and robusta coffee.
Announced on July 30, the rise will take effect on December 1. In a press release, Fairtrade said the rise aims to provide “stronger price security for farmers in the face of higher production costs and predictability for buyers in a volatile market.”
The new minimum price for washed arabica beans—which accounts for more than 80% of all Fairtrade-certified coffee sold—will be $2.00 per pound. This is an increase of 20 cents, or 11%, over the previous minimum price of $1.80 set in 2023. The price on naturally-processed arabica beans will increase by 20 cents, while robusta prices will go up 10 cents per pound.
Fairtrade is one of the largest voluntary certification programs within the coffee industry, and the only one specifically focused on pricing. It works with nearly 600 producer groups and more than 775,000 coffee farmers around the world. The organization said its price review process involved consulting with stakeholders from across the coffee industry, including farmers, cooperatives, roasters, and retailers.
The organization has a longstanding policy of reviewing its coffee prices every four years—the last time it raised its prices was in 2023. The organization calls its minimum price a safety net that protects farmers from C-market volatility—if the C-market falls below Fairtrade’s minimum, buyers purchasing coffee from Fairtrade-certified farmers must still meet the minimum. Since March 2024, the arabica futures price has consistently been above, and sometimes more than double, Fairtrade’s price floor. However, as recently as 2020 it was below $1 per pound.
“Coffee farmers want to earn a dignified livelihood,” Fairtrade International’s senior advisor for coffee Colleen Anunu said in the press release. “The Fairtrade pricing structure is a critical safety net for cooperatives that supports farmer resilience in the face of climate change and emerging regulatory pressures, and also supports the security of global supply chains. It is the only market pricing intervention that involves such rigor and transparency.”
Read more on Fairtrade’s new minimum prices here.
Photo by Shelby Murphy Figueroa on Unsplash
